Watching the news these
days can be a shattering experience. Daily we are shaken by the images of
broken bodies and desperation playing out in Gaza, Iraq, and around the world.
It can leave us feeling helpless. What can we do? Is making a donation really
enough?
We are privileged to
live in relative safety and peace. I can walk down the street without worrying
(too much) about being attacked. My flat will not be bombed. I will not starve.
I will not have to watch my family being massacred. If I don’t like what I see
on the news I can switch the TV off and do something else. But the images stay
with me. I am haunted by death. I must find a response. I must do something. But what?
I’m not a doctor, or a
structural engineer, or a bomb disposal expert, or even a journalist. I have
enormous respect for the individuals who risk their lives saving others. I know
I couldn’t visit any of the places ripped apart by our greed and clamour for
oil and dominance. I can imagine standing in a bombed out street and just
crying. The rage and grief would be overpowering and I would be worse than
useless. I could help no one, not even myself.
Reconnecting to Reality
If we want to respond
to our current crisis in a way that makes a difference, we need to find
practices that encourage us to dig deep into hidden resources and strengths we
might not even realise we have. It is too easy to look away, distract ourselves
with trivia and fantasy, or drown our true feelings with food, booze or drugs.
If I want to help, I
must be stronger. It simply isn’t good enough to use my empathy as an excuse to
hide behind. I may be a psychic sponge but that doesn’t mean I have to be a
basket case too.
So what can I do?
In Active Hope they describe the spiral of the Work That Reconnects. It maps out a process of empowerment and
transformation that can be used to build inner strength and resilience. The
spiral moves through four positions which loop round and round…
- Coming from Gratitude
- Honouring Our Pain for the World
- Seeing with New Eyes
- Going Forth
 |
| by Dori Midnight |
We begin with gratitude for the many gifts we have
and what we love in the world. This leads naturally into honouring our pain as we become aware of how this beautiful world
is being destroyed. The fact that we feel pain over what is happening reveals
how much we care, which in turn reveals our interconnectedness with all of
life. If we weren’t connected to one another, we wouldn’t feel the way we do.
Recognising and
honouring this pain shows us that we belong to life and are part of a vast web
from which we draw our nourishment. This allows us to see with new eyes. Insights will arise, solutions may present
themselves and possibilities will open up. Now we can see what we need to do,
and can move into going forth. Here
we clarify our new vision and begin to take steps towards healing our world.
Spiral of Transformation
We can use this method
whenever we feel the need. It’s a great way to keep in touch with what is real
and it can be moved through in minutes, hours or even over days or weeks –
whatever is needed in order to process the deeper dimensions of our experience.
If you want to
transform this spiral into a truly liberating practice, you can combine it with
self-enquiry. This will take you deep into the true nature of your being as one
with all. At its simplest, self-enquiry means asking: who is…? Who is thinking?
Who is breathing? And so on. It’s a way of penetrating beyond identification
with the personal self into a larger view and the recognition that there is no
self…
Let’s start with an
image: a mad scramble of desperate people hauling themselves into a helicopter
packed with aid. They are fleeing the 73rd genocide of the Yazidi
people.
Chaos swirls like the
dust kicked up by the helicopter. The crush of bodies, trembling with fear.
What if they don’t make it out? What if the chopper is shot down?
I take a deep breath
and step into gratitude. Not: thank goodness that isn’t happening to me, but
gratitude for what I have. I am alive, breathing, free. I have food, shelter,
and hope. I have these things because of others. I am held in a protective
embrace that nourishes me.
I am here now because
of every tiny act that occurred before this moment. I would not be where I am
now without countless others, many unknown and unseen. I feel strengthened by
this realisation. I am rooted into the ground. The breath that passes through
my lungs, moves through every person. We are bound together, indivisible and
whole as one.
I turn back to the
image. The panic and fear rise up but are now held within a larger space. I am
clambering on board the helicopter. I am piloting the helicopter. I am running
towards the open door, dust in my eyes, cradling my child, myself, in my arms.
I am firing rockets and dropping bombs. I am persecuting innocent people. I am
killing, abducting and raping. I am destroying myself in an orgy of death. I am
condemning the violence on TV dressed in an expensive suit. I am flicking past
the news item on my phone, shrugging and moving on.
I see the utter
insanity of our world. I see the brutalising illusions. I see how the refusal
to look is fear of the pain. I see how that fear is covering heartbreak, and
the heartbreak is covering the void – the yawning chasm into which I cannot
fall because I will never make it out.
I see that I am the
void. Whatever I believe I am, whatever stories I tell, they are lies against
the truth of the glory of Being. Would I would rather be destroyed by the
illusion of control than surrender to the mystery?
This is what drives the
desperate madness of our world. We would
rather destroy ourselves than surrender our pride.
Now it is clear what I
must do.
Can I do it?
Can you?
Over the coming weeks
I’ll be blogging my way through some of the chapters in Active Hope. There are exercises and practices to try out along the
way. I hope you’ll join me and perhaps share some of your experiences with this
process as we work through the book together…
Next: Living with Gratitude
First posted: http://jessicadavidson.co.uk/2014/08/23/responding-to-crisis-the-spiral-of-transformation/
